Cruising on the Rhine: Frankfurt and on the Boat
Aline writes: Our trip down the Rhine began with our flight to Frankfurt, where our river ship was moored. It was wonderful to be able to fly to Germany in less than 1.5 hours! We seemed to be the only ones on our cruise (all Americans) that didn’t have jet lag problems.
We flew into Frankfurt one day early to give us a chance to do some sightseeing. Our hotel window gave us a lovely view of the very cold weather – snow!
We comforted ourselves with a visit to one of the famous apple-wine taverns for dinner.
It was like being at a huge party since the tavern had communal seating. The apple-wine was delicious, dry like French hard cider, and it went beautifully with what Bill claims are the best sausages he has ever eaten.
We spent the next day wandering around Frankfurt to the cathedral, the streets, and of course, the Christmas market, which pretty much takes up the whole center of town. These fellows sang some very nice songs at the market.
We picked our hotel to be quite close to the ship, and so were able to walk from our hotel. Here is our first view of our weeklong home. Isn’t it long and low?
Our cabin was on the top floor. I wish we had taken a picture of our cabin, as the cabins were very comfortable with a huge window where you could watch the castles going down the Rhine. It was especially nice as all cabins had an outside window with no walkway outside, so you had a lot of privacy. Here are some typical sights going down the Rhine.
The Rhine was quite low, as you can see in this picture. In fact, there was a rumor that we only had 5 feet beyond the minimum needed for our keel, and that cruises after us were cancelled due to the low water. All I know is the gangplanks were very steep due to the low water!
Since we had never been on a cruise, we didn’t know what to expect, but they did provide some entertainment, such as the last night’s Captain’s dinner where they had a baked Alaska parade, seen below. Other entertainment included a truly terrible lounge singer, and an interesting glass blower, as well as a crew talent show. Kind of surreal, actually.
We met some very nice people, especially these two couples that we palled around with.
The man to my left was my favorite buddy, Ken. He is a farmer from Iowa, and I think I was the first person he had ever met who didn’t eat meat. He was alternatively fascinated and horrified. He did tell me that schnitzel wasn’t meat – I believe he thought that if he could get me to eat a bite I would be cured ☺. But he and his wife Karen (to his left) were very sweet, and it was really fun to get to know someone that wasn’t in the computer industry. Although our common ground was indeed QuickBooks, which he uses to run his business. Even in Germany, there is no escape.
The other couple is Judi and Larry from Texas, and it turns out that we even had an acquaintance in common. All in all we quite enjoyed the cruise: we met lots of nice people, but there was also plenty of time to ourselves. We hardly ever got on a bus – our boat would dock, and we usually took a 2-hour walking tour of the town with a local guide, with lots of free time to explore afterwards. It was a great way to see lots of things in a country that we had never visited before.
We flew into Frankfurt one day early to give us a chance to do some sightseeing. Our hotel window gave us a lovely view of the very cold weather – snow!
We comforted ourselves with a visit to one of the famous apple-wine taverns for dinner.
It was like being at a huge party since the tavern had communal seating. The apple-wine was delicious, dry like French hard cider, and it went beautifully with what Bill claims are the best sausages he has ever eaten.
We spent the next day wandering around Frankfurt to the cathedral, the streets, and of course, the Christmas market, which pretty much takes up the whole center of town. These fellows sang some very nice songs at the market.
We picked our hotel to be quite close to the ship, and so were able to walk from our hotel. Here is our first view of our weeklong home. Isn’t it long and low?
Our cabin was on the top floor. I wish we had taken a picture of our cabin, as the cabins were very comfortable with a huge window where you could watch the castles going down the Rhine. It was especially nice as all cabins had an outside window with no walkway outside, so you had a lot of privacy. Here are some typical sights going down the Rhine.
The Rhine was quite low, as you can see in this picture. In fact, there was a rumor that we only had 5 feet beyond the minimum needed for our keel, and that cruises after us were cancelled due to the low water. All I know is the gangplanks were very steep due to the low water!
Since we had never been on a cruise, we didn’t know what to expect, but they did provide some entertainment, such as the last night’s Captain’s dinner where they had a baked Alaska parade, seen below. Other entertainment included a truly terrible lounge singer, and an interesting glass blower, as well as a crew talent show. Kind of surreal, actually.
We met some very nice people, especially these two couples that we palled around with.
The man to my left was my favorite buddy, Ken. He is a farmer from Iowa, and I think I was the first person he had ever met who didn’t eat meat. He was alternatively fascinated and horrified. He did tell me that schnitzel wasn’t meat – I believe he thought that if he could get me to eat a bite I would be cured ☺. But he and his wife Karen (to his left) were very sweet, and it was really fun to get to know someone that wasn’t in the computer industry. Although our common ground was indeed QuickBooks, which he uses to run his business. Even in Germany, there is no escape.
The other couple is Judi and Larry from Texas, and it turns out that we even had an acquaintance in common. All in all we quite enjoyed the cruise: we met lots of nice people, but there was also plenty of time to ourselves. We hardly ever got on a bus – our boat would dock, and we usually took a 2-hour walking tour of the town with a local guide, with lots of free time to explore afterwards. It was a great way to see lots of things in a country that we had never visited before.
posted by Bill | 10:05 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home